NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: FORT TOTTEN -- UPDATE

By RICHARD WEIR

Published: May 9, 1999

After asserting for more than a year that mercury found along the shoreline of Fort Totten posed no risk to the public, the Army Corps of Engineers, in a reversal, has decided to clean up the toxic metal.

''There is something to be said to err on the side of caution,'' said Bill Tully, a Corps of Engineers project manager overseeing the transfer of about 120 acres of the decommissioned fort to New York City.

As recently as March, the corps still contended that contaminated areas in Little Bay were not accessible to the public and would be better left untouched. But at a meeting two weeks ago, Mr. Tully stunned members of the Fort Totten Restoration Advisory Board by announcing that the corps would excavate sand and underwater sediments contaminated by mercury dumped long ago into a drainpipe on the fort.

''That meeting was nothing less than a revolution,'' said Richard Jannaccio, chairman of the board, which monitors the Army's investigation of the mercury.

Mr. Jannaccio and other local residents on the board, which also includes Mr. Tully and a state environmental representative, had recently increased pressure on the military to remove the mercury-tainted soil. Mr. Tully said criticism from city and state environmental agencies also influenced the Army's decision.

While much of the contaminated area is off limits -- the shoreline is part of a Coast Guard station based at the fort -- board members pointed out that children and adults play and walk barefoot along a narrow, sandy beach there, while fishermen cast off a Coast Guard pier. People also fish from a nearby public jetty.

Mr. Jannaccio said anglers who eat their catch, despite signs warning them not to, faced the greatest danger from the mercury.

Last year, the Corps of Engineers hired a company to conduct tests of sediment borings along a 1,500-foot stretch of shoreline, as well as tissue analysis of flounder, a bottom-dwelling fish. The tests found mercury levels in the sediment and fish samples to exceed state and Federal guidelines. Despite those findings, the corps recommended continued monitoring but not a cleanup.

Mr. Tully said further testing to see how deep the mercury goes is needed before the corps can begin the cleanup, which needs state and city approval.

Saying his group will hold the corps to its word, Mr. Jannaccio said, ''There is some concern the Army will keep stalling.'' RICHARD WEIR